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2.74 AVERAGE
2.74 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
the story's a bit bland, but the characterisation of Sam and the Doctor is really good, and the writing style is solid to good. I had a fun time reading
There's an awful lot of order confirmation porn in the 8th Eighth Doctor Adventure, Option Lock, as Justin Richard seems intent on writing a nuclear war thriller that may or may not star the Doctor. We spend an awful lot of time in situation rooms with Russian generals and American presidents. Oh, it's fine. Richards' prose moves at a fast clip, with short pithy scenes that flow into one another quite well, but I still resent it when we move away from the Doctor and Sam who are Da Vinci Coding their way through a mystery that will explain what's happening on the world stage. He does write a fun pair, it's just that they're stuck in a plot that requires them to do recaps every so often. If you're a quick enough reader, you really don't need them, and I often felt ahead of the Doctor. So I'm ambivalent about Option Lock. Great Doctor and Sam, but also a lot of padding, as if Richards took a TV script and lengthened it.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Most of this reads like a bad Tom Clancy book, which is not what I am looking for from Doctor Who. The Doctor and Sam are not given anything interesting to do, just a lot of research and running around the grounds of a manor house (at least not corridors, for a change?). There are two short and mildly intriguing snippets from the perspective of Future Sam, but that's the only positive I can scrape up. Highly skippable.
I honestly had a good time with this one. The one thing it suffered from was a million military names to keep track of with the characters themselves having very few scenes; that just felt kind of extraneous to me. But it was a really fun book. There wasn't a dull moment, and as it went on, the core cast of one-off characters got pretty strong. I loved Pickering, big Pickering fan.
The best part of it for me was the continuation of Sam's realizing that being with the Doctor is making her hurt people over and over again, which is something I loved the beginnings of in [b:Doctor Who: Genocide|71391|Doctor Who Genocide (Eighth Doctor Adventures, #4)|Paul Leonard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1519681255l/71391._SY75_.jpg|69135] (I believe). I love melodrama and I love conflict
The best part of it for me was the continuation of Sam's realizing that being with the Doctor is making her hurt people over and over again, which is something I loved the beginnings of in [b:Doctor Who: Genocide|71391|Doctor Who Genocide (Eighth Doctor Adventures, #4)|Paul Leonard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1519681255l/71391._SY75_.jpg|69135] (I believe). I love melodrama and I love conflict
It's not the most original adventure, but the well-constructed, beautiful prose kept me thoroughly engaged. I love 8 and Sam's vibe in this, just two friends solving puzzles and having a blast (pun intended!)
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
So I was warned going into this book that it wasn't the greatest Doctor Who novel. And...to be fair, it wasn't. But it also wasn't bad.
This book has the Doc and Sam in present day London where they have to deal with a weird cult that wants to set off a nuke. Pretty standard goal for a villain, but the why is at least mildly interesting.
The biggest issue i've seen that people have had with this movie is that there is quite a bit of Russia/America political intrigue. And i can see why this would be a turn off. There's actually a 20 page layout of the entire chain of the events it takes to set off a nuke. That's fine for a Tom Clancy novel, but not for Doctor Who. It was really the only part of the novel where I was like "wow...i really don't care" and skimmed through it.
The side characters were pretty forgettable as anytime any of the army people came on i completely forgot who they were 2 pages later. There was no real stand out background character i actually cared about and they were all pretty disposable.
Sam was more helpful in this book than before and i feel like she's actually beginning to make some headway into not being useless (despite the annoying thing they do with her character in the ending).
What i really loved about this book was the banter between the doctor and Sam. They actually had a lot of screen time together and their back and forth was the highlight of the book. Found myself smiling and even laughing a few times with their dialogues they had going on.
I wasn't a fan of the political parts of the book where the president and his generals were talking and i feel these scenes could have been cut down WAY more than they were to maybe 5 pages instead of 20-25.
Other than that, the book was fine. It's not going to win any awards for being the best book EVAR (misspelled on purpose), but that's fine. It doesn't have to be. it's a standard Doctor fare and the story left me wanting to read another. so that's a plus.
3.5 out of 5 rounded down to a 3.
This book has the Doc and Sam in present day London where they have to deal with a weird cult that wants to set off a nuke. Pretty standard goal for a villain, but the why is at least mildly interesting.
The biggest issue i've seen that people have had with this movie is that there is quite a bit of Russia/America political intrigue. And i can see why this would be a turn off. There's actually a 20 page layout of the entire chain of the events it takes to set off a nuke. That's fine for a Tom Clancy novel, but not for Doctor Who. It was really the only part of the novel where I was like "wow...i really don't care" and skimmed through it.
The side characters were pretty forgettable as anytime any of the army people came on i completely forgot who they were 2 pages later. There was no real stand out background character i actually cared about and they were all pretty disposable.
Sam was more helpful in this book than before and i feel like she's actually beginning to make some headway into not being useless (despite the annoying thing they do with her character in the ending).
What i really loved about this book was the banter between the doctor and Sam. They actually had a lot of screen time together and their back and forth was the highlight of the book. Found myself smiling and even laughing a few times with their dialogues they had going on.
I wasn't a fan of the political parts of the book where the president and his generals were talking and i feel these scenes could have been cut down WAY more than they were to maybe 5 pages instead of 20-25.
Other than that, the book was fine. It's not going to win any awards for being the best book EVAR (misspelled on purpose), but that's fine. It doesn't have to be. it's a standard Doctor fare and the story left me wanting to read another. so that's a plus.
3.5 out of 5 rounded down to a 3.
It hurts me to rate a Doctor Who book this low. It really does. However, this installment in the Eighth Doctor series just didn't do it for me. It truly read like the author wanted to write a Tom Clancy-esque, cold-war, political thriller, and was forced to write a Doctor Who novel instead. So he wrote what he wanted and shoe-horned the Doctor and Sam in there. The Doctor appears in this novel so little and does virtually nothing to drive or affect the plot- he's there almost as an afterthought. I honestly found myself zoning out during the political/military sections of the book and all the mumbo jumbo about nuke codes and the chain of command I just skimmed over. I want to know more about the alien race and the conciousness that was imparted on the descendants who found the spaceship. I don't read Doctor Who for political intrigue and the threat of nuclear war brought on by politics. SNORE. The mystery of the paintings and the house and the clump of strange woods was the interesting part, and a few chase scenes tossed throughout kept it mildly interesting. On the whole, I won't be rereading this and I'd recommend it as a pass to any Who fans, unless you're reading it to complete the Eighth Doctor collection.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No